Artist in­spired by na­ture

DIS­NEY movies and na­ture are the in­spi­ra­tion be­hind emerg­ing artist Brent Stan­ley’s first solo ex­hi­bi­tion at the Guild­ford Vil­lage Pot­ters.

The 20-year-old Belle­vue res­i­dent said the ex­hi­bi­tion would fea­ture works he had pro­duced at home and at the Dis­abil­ity in the Arts Disad­van­tages in the Arts (DADAA) Mid­land stu­dio.

“When I was re­ally young my nan would bring me movies,” he said.

“The first film we ever watched was A Bug’s Life and from then on I couldn’t get enough, rit­u­al­is­ti­cally watch­ing all the clas­sic Dis­ney films up un­til this day, never miss­ing a new re­lease.

“I love the mag­i­cal and fairy­tale el­e­ments, es­pe­cially when the princesses get all dressed up in their glam­orous dresses and live hap­pily ever af­ter.”

It was while he was at Kala­munda Se­nior High School that Brent dis­cov­ered his nat­u­ral abil­ity and tal­ent for fine art.

In 2015 he started art work­shops at DADAA, where he was able to ex­plore and ex­pand his skills.

In 2016 Brent was awarded a Nexus grant, funded by the Dis­abil­ity Ser­vices Com­mis­sion, to work to­wards an ex­hi­bi­tion to show­case his work.

“I have been mainly work­ing with 2D medi­ums such as paint, pen­cil and texta, but re­cently dis­cov­ered I have a nat­u­ral tal­ent and love for ce­ram­ics,” he said.

“I am ex­cited and ner­vous ahead of my first ex­hi­bi­tion and I am hop­ing one day to earn an in­come from sell­ing my art.”

Na­ture vs Magic opens at the Guild­ford Pot­ters on April 28 at 22 Meadow Street. It runs un­til May 28.